Fatsia, is also called the false caster oil plant,I have s huge one in my garden,not sure what you would do to one indoors,mine gets cut back don't see why you couldn't carefully do that just above a leaf
I am a little confused, a Castor oil plant is Ricinus Communis and a False Castor oil plant is a Fatsia Japonica. Ricinus is very poisonous and is not frost hardy. Fatsia is not poisonous and is hardy.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Even with outdoor ones it's normal to lose some lower leaves. Outside they tend to grow multiple stems and the oldest few that are getting bare at the bottom can be cut out every spring. You can certainly take off the yellow/brown leaves but other than that I'm not sure how best to deal with a single-stemmed one indoors. If you cut it back hard it would most likely grow multiple stems but your friend would lose the shade for this summer. If you just cut a bit off it'd probably branch out just below where you cut and become more top-heavy as well as losing lower older leaves.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border